SparkDad

- Spark Dad

This year had to have been one of the worst years for Super Bowl commercials. I did however see a commercial for Vacation Rental.org

that sparked my interest. They had a very funny vacation rental commercial.

This site is a travel site that focuses on staying at vacation homes instead of at a hotel when on a trip. This is a great idea and concept. They are very hard to find because there is no unified way to search them, but there are some phenomenal values in the industry, especially if you are going with a large group.

We used a vacation rental on our last summer vacation to Lake Medina, Texas. It was the second year that we rented the same home. The cost was about $1500 for a week and the home slept $10 so for about $150 per person for the week we had a lake front property!

I think that the next time that Mama and I do a weekend getaway we may check into using Vacation Rental.org

See you soon! – Spark Dad

Insurance. The industry we all love to hate. No let me preface this by letting you know that I am a licenses insurance agent and can sell both property insurance and life and health insurance. I have worked for State Farm, Allstate and Farmers.

During this time, I have only been insured by State Farm, even when I worked for Allstate and Farmers. But this year my rates went up by about $600 per year on our homeowners policy! Wow! That was a crazy high increase. Of course State Farm sited the recent hurricane Ike damage and expenses as the reason for the rate increase. I understand from a insurance industry stand point. I know what I would be telling my customers if they were calling me asking why their rates went up so much.

But as a consumer I have to wonder if I am making the right decision by keeping loyal to State Farm. Now there are reasons that I stick with them. First of all they have always paid claims on time and paid them properly. Never making me feel like I got short changed.

The other reason is that our State Farm policy includes wind and hurricane coverage which is rare in the Texas Gulf Coast.

So because of the price I sent shopping for insurance. I began by typing in Google, " car insurance ". It brought me to a great site called Net Quote that allowed me to enter my information once and get several quotes for insurance for several companies. It worked great and I was happy with the response.

I found some companies that were a little cheaper, but in the end my loyalty to State Farm because of my treatment during hurricane Ike and previous claims won.

But if you are ever in need of insurance be sure to use a site like Net Quote to help you find competing quotes.

-Spark Dad

In an earlier post I discussed my sunglass problems. This week I received a call from my eye doctor to come look at some frames that they ordered in for me to take a look at. My local eye doctor is a chain so the frames were less than spectacular!

When I bought the shades in Albuquerque at Dr. Iron’s Office I was able to get a very nice Oakley frame. I have received more compliments on my glasses this month that I received on my glasses in the past three years.  So you can understand why I am being a little picky.

I searched the web again and once again come up with Moda sunglasses. They have a nice selection. After looking around their site I found the shades in the photo at right. I am going to my eye doctor on Monday to see if they can order them.

I will update you all when I find the answer. Until then check out the great prices at Moda sunglasses.

- Spark Dad

Last year I procrastinated on getting my eyes checked. Our health insurance gives us a eye exam one time per year and $130 off of new frames. Usually I get it done early in the year, but this year I put it off. Finally while we were on vacation in New Mexico over Christmas break I went to another eye doctor and had the exam.

We purchased a nice pair of Oakley frames for me to wear everyday. I had the great idea that I would get prescription sunglasses as well. We spent the time to pick out the frames, paid and put in the order. Unfortunately my prescription would not work in any of the shade frames that I had picked out.

So off I am this week looking for prescription shades. Now you have to understand that I have a very round head. I am bald so round shades look terrible on me. I have to have a very rectangular frame for it to look right on me.

I searched online to see if I could find some to save myself driving around looking at frames.

One of the places that I ended up at had wholesale sunglasses. They had great prices and sold in bulk, but with my previous mistake on the prescription not working I had to go local.

My eye doctor in town has ordered some frames in for me to try on Monday so hopefully I will find something that will work!

I will post a new picture once the new shades are done and in!

This post was paid for by modasunglasses.com – wholesale sunglasses